Plans to spend $70 million on a complete renovation of the city of Glendale’s downtown campus may proceed as is or officials may shift direction altogether and eye Westgate as a new destination.
The city council came to consensus at its Tuesday afternoon workshop to move forward with current plans, but also to compile a new study to potentially establish city hall and a civic center campus at the Westgate Entertainment District, where the city owns land, simultaneously as a new option.
Outside of that, there was little consensus to come out of the 90-minute discussion in council chambers.
The meeting featured sniping between council members, one council member chiding a city department for a procedural move, the Glendale Chamber of Commerce CEO denying an accusation by the mayor, one council member scolding residents to “make up your mind,” and Mayor Jerry Weiers offering a dire forecast.
“Our downtown, in case people haven’t noticed, is hanging by a thread, and has been for quite some time,” he said.
The workshop came eight months after council first gave unanimous consensus to proceed with planning out the ambitious Downtown Campus Reinvestment Project. Over that time, the city has approved architects and drawn up contracts and planned details down to a construction schedule and where to house municipal departments to be displaced during the work.
During the same time, residents and businesses have been outspoken about a $4.5 million renovation to the 113-year-old Murphy Park downtown, and both sides have attempted to navigate through what each characterizes as miscommunication from the other. The maintenance of the historic park’s 100-plus trees also has raised residents’ and business owners’ emotions.
Councilmember Joyce Clark, who represents the Yucca District, first raised the prospect Tuesday of moving city hall to Westgate to the options. She asked City Manager Kevin Phelps to “pause” the current downtown plans and to change focus.
She also took particular issue with residents who organized opposition against projected plans for Murphy Park. The grassroots group, “Save Murphy Park,” came out united Tuesday, wearing matching green shirts in the council chambers audience.
“I have always had great hopes for downtown. I no longer have those,” Clark said in her remarks.
She characterized a segment of the population as being resistant to change.
“If it weren’t the tree issue, trust me, it would be something else,” Clark added. “In fact some of the downtown merchants have challenged why we’re spending $70 million, period, to renovate the downtown campus. So trust me, there are other issues bubbling out there that exhibit this resistance to change of any kind, any kind.”
She drew comparisons to the city’s decision to pivot downtown strategy from hosting seasonal large-scale events to year-round smaller events. Part of that new approach led to canceling Glendale Glitters, which celebrated the Christmas season downtown for almost 30 years.
“Nothing seems to be good enough. Nothing satisfies you all,” Clark continued to the assembled crowd. “I heard complaints when Glitters was in process and in place, and then when Glitters was discontinued we heard complaints ‘Oh but we loved it.’ Well, make up your mind.”
Fellow Councilmember Bart Turner, of the Barrel District, disagreed with the characterization that residents — and some council members like himself — overreacted to what Clark emphasized were “conceptual” plans for Murphy Park. He added the early renderings were “the only examples being proposed” for the downtown campus.
“Whenever council asked questions about that design concept, it was defended. We weren’t in that meeting told ‘These were conceptual only.’ ...If you’re doing conceptual presentations, you should include several concepts. This is where the problem starts,” he said. “If you come out with just one concept, one theme idea, in a PowerPoint presentation to the council, it’s not to anyone’s blame that they believe that the cake is baked and that’s the direction we’re going in. So those of you that may be concerned — and I will include myself in that — it’s with good cause.”
Vice Mayor Jamie Aldama called Clark’s request to “pause” the current approach and look at options to move city hall to Westgate as “retaliatory.” During that comment, Clark had temporarily left the dais and couldn’t respond.
Phelps acknowledged in his remarks that as far back as May he became aware “there was a lot of confusion and questions about the project” and that “there was a lot of misinformation.” He met with almost 60 downtown merchants in an effort to explain more details and to answer questions he received that, according to one downtown business owner, mostly revolved around plans for Murphy Park and its trees based on the early rendering.
“I perhaps maybe failed in my ability to communicate,” Phelps told the council. “Because clearly soon after that the same misinformation seemed to be circulating around.”
Weiers, shortly after his “hanging by a thread” remarks, contended the Glendale Chamber of Commerce “rejected the notion of investing $70 million in downtown Glendale that would directly support its downtown businesses. That just blew my mind.”
Chamber CEO Robert Heidt, who attended the workshop also wearing a green “Save Murphy Park” T-shirt, flatly denied the claim after the meeting.
“Never has that been stated,” Heidt said. “We’ve wanted to know where the money is coming from, what is being done. Collectively this group, the task force of business owners, want to know how it’s being done.”
Defining the plan
City staff did take time in the workshop to clear up details about the trees and their maintenance.
Jim Burke, the city’s director of public facilities, recreation and special events, said the city has no intention of paving the park, or replacing trees with desert-friendly landscaping, among other notions sparked from public discussions and renovation project materials.
“We don’t have a secret plan to kill off the trees,” he said. “We’re not neglecting addressing the trees.”
The city, he said, has followed the prescribed recommendations from an arborist assessment of the 131,000-square-foot park in April 2021.
Staff, per the arborist report, has removed nine diseased or dead trees, has removed dead wood in other trees, and has cut tree grates away from trunks in others. The city has advised technicians to not use staples in trees to hang annual holiday lights, has completed an irrigation audit in June, has implemented a deep root fertilization and a turf fertilization since last summer, and conducted soil tests in 2018 and 2019 and treated it accordingly.
Also scrutinized has been the decision to remove the trees from a flood irrigation strategy as far back as 2005 in favor of the sprinkler irrigation approach that is in place to this day.
Burke said flood irrigation can take the park out of service for a couple days after treatment every two weeks, can interrupt maintenance, and can even leave a seasonal foul odor, all of which could impact scheduled events.
The city in 2021 reallocated $172,345 in federal money through a community development block grant which had been targeted for “Murphy Park irrigation replacement.” Burke explained that plans in the works for a downtown renovation, which was to include Murphy Park, shifted the thinking.
“We made a decision to turn that money back and not do that project because we didn’t feel like we should spend money, install things in the ground, and have them possibly be changed,” he said.
Turner took issue with that decision.
“The council did approve irrigation improvements to Murphy Park using CDBG money. We voted on it. And if staff isn’t going to do that, council needs to be told about it,” Turner said during his remarks in the workshop. “We approved it, we voted on it. You don’t just go change things that the council has voted on without bringing it back to us.”
Continuing disagreements
The back and forth over information regarding the entire downtown renovation project, including plans for Murphy Park, even brought dissent between council members.
“Since the unveiling of a conceptual — not a definitive — design, but a conceptual, the focus has been on the trees and on Murphy Park. And that’s all the focus has been on. There’s been a lot of disinformation as a result, and I would credit that to certain council members who have fed that disinformation,” Clark said, without naming names.
Later in the meeting, Aldama offered his own accusation toward a fellow unnamed council member.
“It disappoints me that a standing council member will ask you, our citizens of Glendale, and those business owners in downtown Glendale, to resist the city of Glendale’s plan to remodel or renovate a park. Absolutely disappoints me,” he said. “Infuriates me that a standing council member would do that. We shouldn’t be asking you to do that. Rather, you be engaged.”
Councilmember Ray Malnar, of the Sahuaro District, characterized finger-pointing all around as “destructive.”
“Some of the concerns are very, very premature. We have not made any decisions yet,” he said about an hour into the discussion. “And I think we need to back off ... back off, a little bit on that sentiment. Because I think it’s wrong, I think it’s destructive, I think it’s divisive, and I think we need the process to happen.”
Heidt afterward indicated the issues went beyond just the downtown renovation project or landscaping maintenance.
“I think this just shows the dysfunction of Glendale. It is dysfunctional. Whenever they’re met with resistance or challenge, they react,” he said. “This is just another clear example.”
Moving forward
For now, city staff will continue on a dual track of moving forward with plans and discussions about the Downtown Campus Reinvestment Project while at the same time exploring data for a potential move of city hall and a civic center instead to Westgate.
That will bring up new questions to analyze, however.
The current approach features contracts already drawn up in some cases. The city in May selected Arizona-based companies Holly Street Studio and Okland Construction as the primary teams to lead the project, with whom Phelps and staff met for an initial orientation the day before Tuesday’s workshop.
Also, as Councilmember Lauren Tolmachoff noted, a new study would have to account for ways to monetize the potential unoccupied space on the current campus should city services decide on a move to Westgate, and how potentially a vacant downtown campus could impact downtown merchants.
Even if it’s decided to stick with plans to renovate the downtown campus, Turner questions the procedure for temporarily relocating city staff during the extensive project.
“I, too, am concerned about evacuating city hall for a long period of time and the cost that’s incurred,” he said. “It wasn’t how the project had been described to the council and I felt like it was dropped on us as a surprise that now the plan had changed. And I’m still not on board with it.”
Turner added Tuesday he was “ticked as heck” that the 26-page PowerPoint for the afternoon workshop wasn’t distributed in advance to the council or made available to the public for review.
Should the project remain headed for renovating downtown, the workshop did provide a likely timeline.
Construction could start on certain parts of the project as soon as December, and all city staff would vacate city hall to go to temporary office sites no later than June 2023. Construction would go through April 2025, and staff would move back into city hall by June of that year.
In the meantime, Phelps said he will present preliminary information on the Westgate option, as well as other necessary details about the downtown option, at the next city workshop at the end of this month.
“It’s as clear as mud, isn’t it?” Weiers said Tuesday.
Steve Stockmar News Editor | Sun Life Magazine & Arts & Entertainment
YourValley.net @stevestockmar
Meet Steve Steve Stockmar joined Independent Newsmedia, Inc., USA, in 2017, and has been an Arizona journalist for almost 30 years. He serves as editor of Sun Life Magazine and contributes to West Valley communities where he focuses mostly on arts & culture, education, and profiles of neighbors making a difference.
Community: Every season Steve serves as a “buddy” with the Miracle League of Arizona in Scottsdale, has volunteered his time with Family Promise in Glendale, and previously served on the Ghostlight Theatre board in Sun City West.
Education: Graduated from Northern Arizona University in Flagstaff with a Journalism major and English minor.
Random Fact: Steve once won a 50-player live Texas Hold ’Em poker tournament.
Hobbies: Anguishing over his beloved Chicago Cubs and Bears; listening to Beatles and Grateful Dead music.
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